


Like looking into a Warped Mirror

by Hannahfltx



Category: Hannibal (TV), Mindhunter (TV 2017)
Genre: Gen, not beta read we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-27 11:04:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20406679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hannahfltx/pseuds/Hannahfltx
Summary: After running into Dr Alana Bloom, Dr Wendy Carr sets up a meeting between Will Graham and Holden Ford.





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> I find that Holden and Will are so similar I could not help but put them in a room together. AU where Will is caught, Hannibal lets himself be caught before he was investigated for the killings. This story also is set in the 1970's around the same time frame as Mindhunter and the reason not many have heard about Hannibal and Will is their crimes were covered up by the FBI to avoid any shame from the press.

When Wendy was told to attend a party being held by Ted she was not sure what she expected, certainly some pandering and politics but attempting to fend off a man who could not take a hint was not what she expected and seeing Holden was like seeing a lifeline. Wendy was not going to give up the chance to extract herself from this social trap she had found herself in.

“Holden I was wondering if you would mind getting me another drink while I use the restroom.” Wendy said, hearing that man saying something to Holden but she took the chance to run.

Walking down the hallway, stopping to ask one of the men working where the restroom was located. As she was directed to the room she found the door unlocked, opening and leaning her back to the door, eyes closed as she let a breath of relief. 

“Rough night?” A soft voice asked.

Wendy opened her eyes and took in the dimly lit room and looked as another woman, dressed to the nines and looking nothing like the hoard of men outside the small room. 

Wendy, with a quick once over of the woman, who leans against the wall next to a sink responds, “Bit overwhelming out there, sorry the door wasn’t locked I can leave...”

“It’s no problem, I came here for the same reason it would seem, I can only deal with that type for so long” the woman responds.

Wendy looks up, “that type”

“Yes, the type of fed who only thinks in black and white, shoot first worry never type.”

“So you aren't with the bureau then”

“Hardly, I’m here as a favor for a ‘friend’”

“‘Friend’” Wendy asked at the dry tone being used.

“There might have been a day when I thought Jack, or Agent Jack Crawford, he works for the Chesapeake office, but I think this might be the first time he’s talking to Quantico in... maybe a year, they apparently had a falling out. But no, I was an academic who helped consult but I recently retired to work as head of Virginia’s mental institute for the criminally insane, sorry I’ve been rude, Dr. Alana Bloom, yourself”

A bit taken aback by what Dr. Bloom said Wendy responds, “Wendy Carr, I work as a consultant for a new branch at Quantico, the Behavioral Science Unit, we interview serial killers, oh. people who kill three or more people, I was also a teacher before I was invited to work full time.”

“Serial killer? Who have you interviewed?” Dr Bloom asked.

“Ed Kemper, Jerry Brudos, Montie Rissell, Richard Speck, and a bunch more. Well I haven’t interviewed any of them, that would be Agent Holden Ford, he has a way with getting into the mind of killers.”

Dr. Bloom burst into surprised laughter, “It’s like looking into a mirror” Alana whispers, “how is Agent Fords mental state?”

A bit taken aback Wendy responds, “I’m not entirely comfortable talking about it, but... I can’t say talking to killers is good for his mind.”

“I can imagine. One of the agents I use to work with, he was tasked with getting into the heads of killers, similar to Agent Ford, he’s now in the mental asylum I oversee.”

Drawing a breath Wendy softly says, “how did that happen?”

“He got too close to a killer, a killer bent on getting him to join him in his killing, you know if you’re worried about him I can set up a meeting with him, Will Graham, so your man can get a sense as to how easy you can lose yourself in another's mind.”

Wendy looks at the card, her business card, she reaches out and gently takes it from her hands and says “I think it would be good for them, and it would be a good case study for our research.”

“Just give me a call, but I think I need to head back into the swamp, don’t want anyone wondering where I've gone off too.” With a wink Dr Bloom walked out of the small bathroom.

Wendy looks down at her hands at the number on the card and slips it into her purse, with one last breath she too heads into the fray.


	2. The Meeting

Wendy hung up the phone with a smile on her face as she looked at the board of killers, the next on the list, Paul Bateson, for her and Gregg are going to go see, she moves the name down and looks out into the rest of the office. Holden and Bill getting their things together to head back to Atlanta both look up as Wendy calls them into the debrief room, Gregg off to the side following them in. 

“I know you want to get back to Atlanta, Holden, but I’ve set up an interview I need you and Bill to handle, I get the feeling that this is not something this guy usually does. His name is Will Graham and he has admitted killing at least five people, mind you a few were killed while he was working as an FBI agent out in Chesapeake but his partner, Hannibal Lecter, who he killed with is believed to have killed near 89 people, many we think he ate or fed to those he interacted with.” Wendy says looking at the three men sitting.

“89? And he ate them?” Holden suddenly sitting up, invested in the conversation.

“Yes and we believe Will helped Hannibal in the killing, and we he ate his fair share of the victims.” Wanda continued looking at the board at the two pictures posted on the board. “You can understand why we need to talk to them.”

Holden, looking conflicted, asked “and we can’t wait for the Atlanta case to close?”

“Just getting an interview at all was nearly impossible to set up, I fear if we change anything Will might close off for good. And before you ask, he asked for you, apparently the warden of the asylum told him about your interviews.” Wendy looked between Bill and Holden, “He said he would only talk with you. The place is just outside Chesapeake, it should only take around three hours to get there, you can go and be back within a day.”

“If you think we need to go I trust you on this, Holden relax, I trust Jim to handle the case for a day, you can fly out after we get back.” Bill said.

Holden, who had stood up to look at the board, the interview with Will scheduled for tomorrow. A glance over his shoulder to look at the board he had put together to investigate the Atlanta child killer. “One day, I don’t want to spend time talking to a man while a killer is out there.”

Wendy looked pleased and handed them a map, the location marked, “Have fun, I can’t wait to hear your recordings.”

The next morning Holden pulled up to Bill’s house, he already waiting outside, stopping to let the other man in Holden asked, “I still feel like this is a waste of time, there is a man out there killing children and we’re stuck doing an interview.”

“You herd the lady, apparently we are the only people he has been willing to talk to in the three years he’s been behind bars, the lady who runs the place seemed to talk to him for Wendy to get an interview.” Bill said looking at the file detailing the crimes he admitted to committing and those he is believed to have committed. The list of those who he and his partner could have killed don’t seem real, how can a person turn a human into a heart by bending and breaking the bones, the pictures being the only thing that convinces Bill that the crime scene wasn’t some mass hallucination by the officer investigating. He shuts the file, it is more book in size than anything, “apparently they never even got the partner on any of the murders, all they were able to charge him with is eating human flesh, but it seems the jury was convinced he would continue to kill if let off easy, so he and this Graham were given three life sentences in an insane asylum. Honestly, given that Graham was a fed, I’m shocked this is the first I’m hearing about it.”

Holden glances from the road to the file, “They probably covered up the crimes, apparently it was Will Graham's supervisor that brought in Hannibal for consulting, even had him act as a counselor, so it would look bad for people to see the FBI hiring killers and cannibals.”

With a hum Bill looked out the window, the ride continued on with small conversation of the crimes, how they would talk about the killings, and what they wanted for lunch. 

Walking up to the asylum was an eerie experience, both so used to prisons the cold front of the building void of barb wire, no guards milling about, and only a soft looking woman sitting at an open desk by in the front office who looked up upon their entry. Their steps echoing in the quiet entrance. 

The woman smiles at them and asks, “Do you have a scheduled visit?”

Both step forward, their badge and gun in their hands, the woman gives them a confused but mildly amused look. Holden says “We were scheduled to meet a Will Graham?”

Now the woman sat back in her chair in shock, “Alana said Will was having visitors, you two are the only ones he has agreed to see, goodness knows that many others have tried to talk to him, but he only ever stairs them down until they leave. Bless his heart.”

She placed a tray on the desk and handed them two forms to sign, the familiar agreement of not charging the facility with any attacks that could take place. The two men placed their guns in the tray and replaced their badges into their coat pockets. A guard, the first they had seen, walked out from a side hallway and gestured the two men follow, a metal gate blocking off the rest of the hallway, the guard opened it with a weirdly flat key.

“Why does the key look like that?”, Holden asked looking at the key, it looks long and short, with ridges along the edge.

“Makes it more difficult to pick the locks.” The man says in a gruff and dry voice.

Walking down the hall both men looked around on either side of them cells with the wall facing out made of glass, a line of holes near the center of the glass plane. A single individual in each cell, most sitting in bed staring at the wall, a handful screaming and throwing themselves at the glass, at these cells the guard stopped and talked at them until they calmed down.

“You talk them down? I’ve never seen that.” Holden asked looking at the guard.

“Dr. Bloom told us to take a gentler approach with the patients, it keeps them calmer so our job keeping them in line is easier.” The guard said as he continued to walk.

Holden grabbed a notepad from his pocket and scribbled notes as he followed the man. Bill looking around at the people.

“They look like fish in a tank.” Bill said as he walked.

The guard laughed and nodded, “You’re not wrong, we joke that they look like specimens in a jar, and honestly it’s not far off.”

The group turned left at the end of the hallway, the cells in this hall much larger than the previous and the guard walked to a cell near the end of the hallway and stopped.

A scruffy man sat at a desk covered in letters and books, his back to the front of the cell. He was writing something when the guard said, “Will you have visitors.”

Will waved his hand and continued to write, the guard turning and nodding to Holden and Bill, leaving them alone in the hallway.

“Hello my name is Holden Ford and this is Bill Tench and we work with the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI and we would like to record this interview, we are looking into people like yourself who have killed multiple people, in the submission of th-”

“You can stop with the little legal speech, I don’t care what you do with the recording, if I cared I wouldn’t have agreed in the first place.” The soft voice of the man at the table said, he turned around after placing a pencil down. 

He stood. The man looks soft and unlike the other killers they had interviewed, but his eyes are sharp and look over the two agents. Will nodded behind the two men, Holden turning to see a stack of chairs off to the side of the cell behind them. Holden turned to grab a chair to set the recorder on.

“Alana gave me your reports of the Kemper interview, you seem to have a way with killers Agent Ford.” Graham said as he stood near the glass separating them. “I understand how difficult it can be to wallow in the minds of madmen, tell me have you started to feel as mad as the men you talk too” 

Holden looked up from the recorder and looked at Grahams eyes, cold but curious. “Please call me Holden, I do find it difficult to talk to the serial killers, they have a way of burrowing into the mind. I frequently find myself trapped in the haze of darkness of the mind.” Bill looked at Holden and was about to comment on his poetic words when he heard Will choke out a laugh and nodded to the words.

“I understand exactly what you mean and please call me Will. Jack, my old supervisor, noticed my way of piecing together the minds of killers from their crime scenes so he seemed to enjoy throwing me into the deep end to close a case quickly. With each killer I was forced to see I lost myself in the minds of the killers I sought to catch.” 

A murmur from Bill of “oh god, there’s two of them”

“It certainly didn’t help that Jack found the one killer invested in turning me into a killer and hired him to work with me.” Will continued and then shouted “Not only that but a man ALL TOO HAPPY TO LEAVE ME WITH ENCEPHALITIS!”

“My dear Will how could I stop your mind when it was so beautifully burning.” A formal and accented voice said from the cell next to Will’s.

“You know I should have known better than falling in love with that idiot, you know what he did when I turned him down? He gutted me a blink away from death so I would live with a scar he left and if you think that’s bad he decided that he missed me so he came to the obvious solution that if he ate my brain I would always be with him.” Will lifted his hair from his forehead revealing a large cut along the edge of his hairline.

“But my dear how could I not after you sent a man to nail me to a cross to bleed to death.” The man said, “And I do believe I have been rude, what a terrible influence you are”

“Me! A bad influence?” Will said, the pitch of his voice rising.

“My name is Doctor Hannibal Lecter, and please call me Hannibal.” 

Standing closer to the opposite wall Holden was able to see both men. The two could not be more opposite but the look in their eyes so similar. Holden moved the chair so the recorder sat between the men and asked Hannibal if he could record. The man, even wearing the large overalls still gave an air of regality.

“So what was your family life like?” Holden started the questions.

“My mom died when I was young but my dad did his best to raise me, taught me everything I know about fishing and motors. He was always there for me as I was figuring out my empathy, you see this empathy lets me completely understand anyone I meet, just looking at the way some hold themselves, their eyes, I can see into their very being. I was tasked with allowing my mind to become the killer, acting out each kill.” Will whispering by the end, “Take yourself for instance, your shoulders, eyes, and hands. You only just started having panic attacks right? Something to do with work, likely a killer given how uncomfortable you are in here. You must find yourself becoming lost in the darkness, you need someone to be a light so you can find your way out or else you will wind up like me. After all the one I trusted to guide me out turned out to be the one dragging me deeper.” 

“I- I don’t know what your talking about.” Holden said stepping back.

“No? What about you. Home life is an issue, look at the way you are dressed. You must feel like you are being pulled apart by both your home and work. What happened, not a death in the family. Ah. I know that look, you just found out your child killed someone, or had something to do with a death. I understand, Abigail, she was like my daughter, she helped kill many girls with her father. After I killed her father she went and killed a man. Hannibal helped bury the body. Have you helped cover up for your child?”

Bill’s face lost its colour as the blood rushed out. Holden looked over at Bill in shock.

“You haven’t told him, sorry but this is not something that should be kept hidden. I find that agents who work closely together as you two you can’t keep secrets from the other.” Will said, looking a bit abashed. “Sorry, I can’t help what I see”

Holden cleared his throat and turned away from Bill to look back at Will “You were saying about your family.”

“Not much to tell you, I grew up loved by my father, but if you want a truly crazy childhood ask him” Will said as he pointed to Hannibal’s cell.

Holden looked over at the next cell and Hannibal was watching him and Bill, he let out a sigh “I get the feeling even if I chose to not share my childhood William would not be so inclined”

“Damn straight” Will said leaning against the shared wall.

Hannibal let out a tired sigh looking at the wall and spoke, “I had a loving and normal childhood until my parents were killed, my sister and myself were caught by the men who had killed them, they trapped us in our family shed. We had a harsh winter and my sister was dying. So they decided to kill her and feed themselves and I her flesh.”

“There’s more to it than that Hannibal. He really is not doing his life justice but if he wants to be all aloof and mysterious I can hardly stop him. Trust me, he is a stubborn bastard when it comes to keeping secrets. I’m shocked he shared even that much. You know he hunted down the men who killed his sister, killed one kept the other alive under his old family home. I found the guy still alive, an old worker for the family keeping him alive, but only just. I killed the guy, strung him up with wings of glass, and covered him in slug larvae. Fireflies love slug larvae so he was quickly swarmed in lights. No one ever found that one, a shame it was quite beautiful.” Will spoke as he moved to sit in a chair.

Bill looked at Will as he sat, “why did you kill him?”

Will shrugged and looked up, “That one was out of anger for what happened to Hannibal, I think. Most of my kills were as an FBI agent, you know they wanted to give me an award for killing Garrett Jacob Hobbs. Makes you wonder how I was hailed as a hero for killing one man but people were so upset by my killing Randall Tier, he was also a killer, tore his victims apart but because I killed him and presented his body as he truly was it became taboo. Hee wanted to be an animal, so helped him become one.” Will paused and looked at Bill, “What makes something wrong, us eating the pigs Hannibal hunted? What about the Donner Party, they were stranded in the mountains starving in the harsh winter, do you condemn them for eating each other to survive. I know when Thomas Dudley and Edwin Stephens, two sailors who had killed and eaten their fellow crew men, docked at Falmouth. But in the eyes of the law for the crew on this ship they did not get the forgiveness that The Donner party did, they were seen as killers. They only did what they had to survive. They were sentenced to death, another form of murder justified.” Will turned to look at Holden, “What do you think is the line that must be drawn, is the executioner just as guilty as the man he kills or is murder in that case justified? Don’t answer, I don’t want you to tell me what you think I just want the question to be in the back of your head, as something to think about. Now enough about childhood ask another question.”

Holden looked away from staring at Will, clearing his throat to look at the paper in his hands. “What were you feeling when you killed those men?”

“A few I felt like I held the power of life in death in my hands, as a god. But I quickly figured out that was Hannibal and the other killers I surrounded myself in. For me, the people I killed where themselves killers, I felt happy when I killed because I knew that their deaths brought peace. And no, I can see the question forming, I never felt anything sexual in the act of killing, only the carnal please being reflected from Hannibal, he quite likes it when I am covered in my victims blood. But Killing never gave me ‘that’ sort of pleasure.” 

Holden looked down at his notes and wrote, he asked still writing “You said you looked into the minds of killers what did you see?”

Humming Will replied “Most of them felt empty, the killings were an attempt to find that missing part of themselves, others got off on the death, a few believed that death meant nothing and wanted to give people the chance at true peace.” A dry laugh, “one man I hunted didn’t kill but trapped diabetic people and buried them partially underground, kept them in a coma with sugar water, because he felt that humans could not truly connect like mushrooms do. So he used them to grow mushrooms so they can be fulfilled. When I was investigating the scene one of the men woke up and grabbed me, he died on the way to the hospital but it almost gave me a heart attack. I can’t say I’m use to the bodies at a crime scene wake up and grab me. Honestly thought it was a hallucination.” Will turned his head to the side and asked “I myself am biased, Hannibal was always my favorite of my killers but if you truly want to see the most fascinating killer I know of, look up H. H. Holmes. He is possibly the greatest killer to have existed, it’s believed he killed around 200 people. Granted he only confessed to 27, but the number was definitely much higher and he only lived to be 34 before he was killed. Talk about a man living his life to his fullest.” Will trailed off in thought. 

He looked to the side his eyes softening, “but so many of the killers I have looked into, they only wanted to be understood, to be seen, granted they more wanted to share their darkness with another. I happened to fall into one such killer.” He looked at the wall and said, “they never got him on murder you know, they charged him with cannibalism and the only reason they caught him is because I was arrested, he didn’t want to be separate from me, the big oaf. You know why our cells are next to each other? Because we talk more if left alone near each other.” 

Will turned around walking back toward the desk, he placed a hand on one of the piles of paper, turning his head he said, “please feel free to visit again, I enjoy being let to talk, but right now I would like to continue writing.” Will pulled the chair out a took a seat, and a look at Hannibal had him staring at the shared wall, distracted. 

Holden walked out of the hallway to see the guard leaning against the wall, when the two agents approached he stood straight and asked, “Done?” 

“Yes” Bill said, distracted.

The three quietly walked back down the hallway to the main entrance back to the desk.

“Good to see the both of you in one piece, here’s your guns” The woman said as she pulled out the tray. “I know Alana wanted to talk to you but she has been ever so busy lately, I do hope you come back to visit to talk with her.”

Grabbing their guns they nodded to the woman and headed back to where they had parked their car, before they got into the car the guard ran over to meet them, he held out a piece of paper, “Will said this might help you?” he said more asking than stating.

Holden looked down at the piece of paper, on the top of the paper the title, Break Down of the Atlanta Child Killer, the paper a detailed description of the type of man who might be the killer. A young black man who killed out of jealousy for a failure in childhood, recommended they look for a young failed singer or similar jobs that target young children as it must have been only recently that the killer felt his hopes were crushed, and there are not many jobs that target children and once grown become difficult if not impossible for an adult to enter the job field. At the the bottom of the letter Will’s signature and the scribbled message- don’t let Jack know I looked at an open case or else he will never leave me alone.

Holden looked at Bill who laughed and said to the younger man, “Guess this wasn’t a waste of time, huh. You got something to look into for Atlanta.”

Holden looked down at the letter in his hand and let out a sigh, he nodded and said, “not as much of a waste of time that I expected it to be. But we still need to be-” he cut himself off, “no you have a family issue Ted and I can handle this, spend some time with your wife and son.” 

Bill looks over and lets out a sigh and a quiet, “thanks...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Felt the need to bring up H. H. Holmes, how no one has brought up Americas first and most successful serial killer in a show about serial killers, I don't know.
> 
> But I just had this idea and haden't seen anyone else write this crossover, but please feel free to use this idea or prompt or anything as I love the idea of these two fandoms together.
> 
> Thanks for reading.


End file.
